Could The Wac Be Looking To Move Back Into Texas?

[UNTflyer]

North Texas:

North Texas is one of the Texas' largest universities. UNT has a huge enrollment at 35k, and is quickly developing an Alumni base in the huge Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metro area.

UNT is the area's dominant public school. Concern has been raised about the universities ability to draw in a market containing Texas Christian, SMU, Texas A&M and Texas.

The university has a new stadium in the plans, which will hold around 35,000. The Mean Greens current football home, Fouts Field, holds 30,000.

UNT has been offered WAC membership before and declined. UNT remains an unlikely option since the university has already turned down the geographically challenged WAC to stay in the Texas-oriented Sun Belt.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/52604-c...back-into-texas

Edited September 5, 2008 by UNTflyer

[bstnsportsfan3]

at least he wrote up a nice write up for us! i dont want the WAC and i think we have made that clear, its like the girl who doesn't take no for an answer.

[UNTflyer]

Karl Benson would love to have North Texas over any of those other schools.

I would reconsider the WAC if they could offer some kind of incentive, like guaranteed televised games. I would also reconsider if they were able to add to more "Eastern" teams like Tulsa, Rice, or SMU and could arrange a schedule where we went west only twice a year.

BTW... "Texas-oriented Sun Belt???"

Edited September 5, 2008 by UNTflyer

[Guest GrayEagleOne]

Several flaws in that writing, two of which you pointed out. Texas and A&M are not close to the DFW market although their league office is. They should have included Baylor and Tech at the least or perhaps the addition of OU and OSU as competitors in the DFW market. We have been "quickly" developing an alumni base in the Dallas-Fort Worth market for about fifty years. And, unless we are fielding several football teams, the Sun Belt is not Texas oriented.

There are similar errors in most of the writeups. Worst of all none of those mentioned would likely have a chance of helping La Tech and Hawaii in less than five years. TSU probably could since they are the only university with an existing team. Even if the others could they'd still have a long way to go to be competitive. By the time that happened Louisiana Tech could easily be in another conference.

At least he got one thing right. It is highly unlikely that we'll be part of a ten team WAC.

[UNTflyer]

How it might work:

WAC West

Boise St

Fresno St

Hawaii

Nevada

San Jose

Utah State

WAC East

LA Tech

UNT

SMU

Tulsa

Rice

New Mexico State

Idaho gets voted out.

Play the 5 teams in your division and 3 from the other division. Of the three inter-division games, at least one will be a home game.

[NT80]

How it might work:

WAC West

Boise St

Fresno St

Hawaii

Nevada

San Jose

Utah State

WAC East

LA Tech

UNT

SMU

Tulsa

Rice

New Mexico State

Idaho gets voted out.

Play the 5 teams in your division and 3 from the other division. Of the three inter-division games, at least one will be a home game.

That works for me, let's move! An eastern division like that would be an upgrade for us but doubt you could convince the CUSA teams to go back into the WAC.

[UNTflyer]

That works for me, let's move! An eastern division like that would be an upgrade for us but doubt you could convince the CUSA teams to go back into the WAC.

With the success of the WAC making it to BCS games, it might not be difficult to convince two other teams to join.

Other candidates:

UTEP

Arkansas State

New Mexico

Colorado State

[UNT_playmaker]

I would be in if this was the conference lineup

WAC-East

UNT

SMU

Rice

Houston

Tulsa

La Tech

[GreenMachine]

at least he wrote up a nice write up for us! i dont want the WAC and i think we have made that clear, its like the girl who doesn't take no for an answer.

still gotta throw her a bone every once in awhile in case of an extended dry spell.

[forevereagle]

Is it just me, or are we the only viable option on that list? All the other schools are either 1-AA or don't even have a team.

[Green Mean]

At this point SMU would not leave the CUSA to join the WAC especially to join us in a division of a conference. I am okay with LT, New Mexico, Denver, Ark St, etc. I just do not see any CUSA schools to join us to go to the WAC which is fine with me as I am wanting NT to go to the WAC.

Edited September 5, 2008 by Green Mean

[KRAM1]

I like the fact that it could be possible to play a schedule with more of a "local" flavor where fans could more easily travel to away games. Both our fans and the other team's fans. Makes for fuller stadiums and a much better game day atmosphere. Who knows might even be able to add interest. Because, sorry it may just be me, but I find it very hard to work up any real "rival battle" attitude for the SBC teams we play. Yes, it's game day and that is all that matters, but it sure is a bunch more fun when you have someone to "love to beat"-like OSU loves to beat OU and all that.

See you at FOUTS SATURDAY! BEAT TULSA!!!!!

[yyz28]

I agree with flyer's divisions, but this whole thing is premature - but when there is a shakeup, and there IS one coming, with the huge increase in travel costs I think all of the non BCS schools will be looking to take advantage of geographical rivalries to rebuild their conferences to drive more revenue to the bottom line and keep travel costs in check.

Schools who have never been allies before might very well be able to put old feelings aside for the mutual benefit of each other. SMU/UNT comes to mind. A TEXAS conference of mostly or all of the NON-BCS Texas schools would benefit all involved.

...remember, when conferences re-shuffle, bowls will reshuffle too. We're not going to recognize the college football conference landscape in 2-3 years.

[Cowtown]

all the CUSA teams dumped the WAC to go to CUSA.

No way they go back...it would be like us considering joining the Southland because it makes our geographic pants horny.

[yyz28]

all the CUSA teams dumped the WAC to go to CUSA.

No way they go back...it would be like us considering joining the Southland because it makes our geographic pants horny.

You're assuming a static CUSA and WAC... hell, you're assuming CUSA and the WAC (and the 'Belt) survive the next round...

[Ken14]

But would the WAC be a plus for us??.....hate to even have realignment talk this early...but...

[Quoner]

What's it going to take to kill this - swear words? Naked athlete photos? Werewolf porn? Rocky Dennis? Rocky Dennis porn?

[ADLER]

Gee, I really, really, really think a good Eastern WAC would be:

Louisiana Tech Bulldogs

North Texas Mean Green

SMU Mustangs

TCU Horned Frogs

Texas Longhorns

Dallas Cowboys

Houston Texans

San Antonio Vikings (relocated to join this new division)

Imagine how cool that would be! Maybe we can make an even bigger version of JerryWorld Stadium out of green and white striped candy and put it on clouds hovering over the North Texas Athletic Village! Yeah, that'll be really neat!

[Green Mean]

What's it going to take to kill this - swear words? Naked athlete photos? Werewolf porn? Rocky Dennis? Rocky Dennis porn?

This is better than porn....

[MeanMag]

This is better than porn....

Matthew Mcconaughey's looking a little beaten down these days.

[Green P1]

This is better than porn....

Are you referring to the actual photo, or what he's doing in said photo? If its the latter I totally agree. If it's the former.......I'll take the porn.

[the real grad88]

I agree with flyer's divisions, but this whole thing is premature - but when there is a shakeup, and there IS one coming, with the huge increase in travel costs I think all of the non BCS schools will be looking to take advantage of geographical rivalries to rebuild their conferences to drive more revenue to the bottom line and keep travel costs in check.

Schools who have never been allies before might very well be able to put old feelings aside for the mutual benefit of each other. SMU/UNT comes to mind. A TEXAS conference of mostly or all of the NON-BCS Texas schools would benefit all involved.

...remember, when conferences re-shuffle, bowls will reshuffle too. We're not going to recognize the college football conference landscape in 2-3 years.

I could not agree more with this post. Another major shakeup in the mid majors IS coming. I don't think people realize how high gas prices will be next summer and the summer after that. Sure, gas has come down a little...it always does, but not back to its original price before it started rising...not anywhere close. The point is that smaller programs WILL change how they do business or they will GO OUT of business. I could easily forsee an all-Texas conference of UNT, Houston, SMU, Rice, TCU (maybe) and others like Tulsa, and Southern Miss thrown into the mix. It will happen. It is just a matter of when.

[Arkstfan]

BleacherReport let's basically anyone become an "expert" as long as they have internet access to post.

Yes there have been articles by the professional media about the WAC's interest in going to 10. None have said boo about Texas and there is a reason for that.

The schools the WAC is looking at are: UC-Davis, Cal-Poly, Sacramento State, Montana, and even some interest in Denver and some WCC schools to be non-football members. The schools the WAC talked to a few years ago to avoid taking Idaho (UNT, ULL, ASU, MT) would absolutely not get sufficient votes to be invited today because the rest of the league has zero desire to be in the central time zone. The WAC has encouraged LaTech to find another home and made it clear that they will not seek any team to help Tech's travel issue in the wake of their failure to find such a team several years ago.

Since 1992, 1/5 of NFL players drafted from the WAC have come from Texas, a state where the WAC is no longer represented.

Sneaky little stat there. It covers the time period when Texas-El Paso, TCU, SMU, Rice, Tulsa, and La.Tech were members of the league and all recruit Texas. In the 2008 draft 75% of all WAC players drafted were from California, none from Texas. The year before 46% were from California, 15% from American Samoa, 15% from Hawaii, one from Texas and one from Louisiana.

From 1996-1998 5 out of 16 WAC schools recruited Texas heavily (UTEP, TCU, SMU, Rice, Tulsa) that's 31% of the membership.

In 1999 schools oriented to recruit Texas represented five of 8 members. (62.5%)

In 2000 schools oriented to recruit Texas represented five on 9 members. (55.5%)

From 2001 through 2005 schools oriented to recruit Texas represented 5 of 10 members. (50%).

2006 forward 1 of 9 (didn't bother to see if NMSU is still recruiting Texas) (11%)

When you see the amount of Texas presence the WAC has had only getting 20% of NFL draftees from Texas doesn't speak highly of the effectiveness of the schools in recruiting Texas.

[UNTLifer]

A WAC article with freaking Star Wars references. Some days I wish I had never gotten out of bed.

[oldguystudent]

The schools the WAC is looking at are: UC-Davis, Cal-Poly, Sacramento State,

As usual, the Big West Conference serves as little more than a halfway house for schools that are moving up from D2 or those that are developing their football programs. Schools that have left for the WAC or another D1A football conference from the Big West since I was a student:

Fresno State, UNLV, San Jose State, Idaho, Utah State, Nevada, New Mexico State, North Texas, Boise State, La Tech, Northern Illinois, La Lafayette.

Gawd I hate that conference!!!!! We were a great basketball conference when I started school with half decent football, and the people that run the show just pissed it all away.

Why yes, I AM bitter about the crappy attitude towards athletics at UC Irvine and its influence on the steady downhill decline of the conference overall!!!

Well, at least we've still got baseball. That seems to be the only sport the Big West cares about, and UC Irvine actually had the gumption (under the direction of current UCLA AD Dan Guerrero) to resurrect their baseball program.

Sorry for the rant. Any mention of former or current Big West teams bolting just strikes a certain nerve with me.